The Pasquotank Sheriff’s Office is investigating after someone painted two state road signs in northern Pasquotank County to look like swastikas, the symbol of Nazi Germany.

N.C. Department of Transportation spokesman Timothy Hass said the signs, which are on opposite sides of U.S. Highway 158, are posted to alert motorists they are approaching an intersection. Hass said both signs were painted to look like swastikas.

A caller told The Daily Advance he observed the signs around 5:30 a.m. Wednesday. Hass said the damaged signs were replaced with new ones by 9:45 a.m.

"As far as NCDOT is concerned, this would clearly be a case of vandalism of state property,” he said.

Pasquotank Sheriff Randy Cartwright said an investigator has been assigned to the case.

The swastika was the symbol of Adolf Hitler's racist regime in Nazi Germany from 1933 until its defeat in 1945 by the Allies in World War II. According to The New York Times, the Anti-Defamation League, a Jewish advocacy organization, considers the swastika “a universal symbol of hate” that targets not only Jews but also African-Americans, Hispanics and gays because it’s designed to instill fear.